Due to the lack of mobility, a handicapped person is dependent on others. In addition to creating difficulties in completing daily tasks, this dependency also creates hardships for those around them. The lack of mobility and the feeling of burdening others have long term physical and mental effects on both the handicapped person and those around them.
Regardless of the means (e.g. lifter), a type of sling is used to move a disabled person from one point to another. At present, a variety of slings have been designed and are being employed. Existing slings are either too bulky or there is a need to position the disabled person into them, which requires some manual lifting of the subject, or they are made of a type of fabric or strap supports which makes these slings flexible. The flexibility of these slings combined with the compressibility of the disabled person's body requires a long vertical range of movement for the lifting devices to do the actual lifting, resulting in limitations in the usefulness of these types of slings. These slings also exert lateral pressure on the individual's body causing discomfort and possibly affecting circulation in the contact area.
What is needed, therefore, are means to eliminate the disadvantages of the existing slings for lifting a disabled person. The use of a rigid sling system that can be slid comfortably and safely under the disabled person with minimal effort from a lay person and secures the subject without inserting lateral pressure while requiring minimal lifting of the subject is highly desirable. Hence this invention provides a practical solution.